His family say he was a fisherman. The Saudis say he smuggled drugs. He was one of hundreds executed this year

Saudi Arabia executed 345 people in 2024, rights groups say, double the rate of the past few years. The government in Riyadh, pictured, has rejected allegations of unfair trials and secret executions. Justin Setterfield/Getty Images

For a year, Mohamed Saad’s family had no idea whether he was alive or dead. The 28-year-old Egyptian fisherman had gone out on a routine trip off the coast of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula and never returned. Relatives searched for months with no word from authorities. When they finally heard his voice, it was from a prison in Tabuk, northern Saudi Arabia, where Saad said he was being held on drug-smuggling charges.

On October 21 the Saudi state killed him, eight years after being detained. The family learned of his death through a cellmate